Hello,
In all fairness to people new to the UAE (or wherever) asking genuine questions, it'd be helpful if posters could be specific in their replies and with regard to their own actual experience vis a vis the question - if any!
A couple of examples - based on 7 years experience in the UAE & 20 in the Arab world (so that I meet the specs I just stated):
re: Churches - there are Churches - yes, real buildings, in Dubai, Al Ain and Abu Dhabi - and maybe in other Emirates of the UAE - not 'services are usually held privately' or whatever the post said.
re: teaching in RAK - the term 'English Speaking School' is a common one here in the Gulf - the ESS in Al Ain, RAK & Sharjah (and in Doha, Qatar) at least - have no knowledge of what the ones in Dubai are - are Brit Curiculum, taught by Brits mainly, do the SATs, etc., might be governed by an international body and cater for English Speaking children, and not whatever the post I was so disgusted by said about them being for non-native speakers, etc.
As for the post about presuming paranoia at the MLI - well, I have worked there for the past 7 mos., and sure, some people might be paranoid - but maybe they are paranoid people anyway - maybe they have there own crosses to bear and chips on their shoulders - maybe after working in a place for several years you can get negative - but there are also a lot of non-paranoid, fairly optimistic people who are quite happy to be be here and to stay...
All I'm saying is that to help people thinking about coming over here, let's work from a knowledge base - generalisations based on assumption and hearsay don't help anyone.
Off my soapbox now,
Regards,
Heather M. Baba

In the UAE, schools with English Speaking in their names tend not to be US or UK schools but for students whose country has English as an official langauge.

I presume this is part of what you are unhappy about? Perhaps, I should have written "in Dubai" because there are many schools with English in their title which cater exclusively for children who are not from the UK but may or may not be native speakers. The schools follow curricula from non-UK countries. I don't believe there is anything about these children being non-native speakers in the post.
By the way, there is no such thing as a "British' Curriculum, although there are schools in Dubai and Sharjah which claim to follow such a thing. Scotland has a completely separate education system and always has had. Also, UK schools do not use the SATs system, this I believe is from the US. English and Welsh schools follow GCSE, A and AS level exams and the IB and Scotland has Highers, O levels, Scot Bac., etc.

Hello,
I have tried several times to post a reply to Afra, but have goofed somewhere,
The English Speaking Schools I named are aimed at western expat children - can't speak for the others - I was just objecting to blanket satements - hence title 'be specific',
SATS are taken by children in Brit schools where the National Curriculum of Eng and Wales (yes, Scotland is probably different - N. Ireland is not) in years 2,6 and 9 - and yeas, the SATs (differentiated by pronunciation - es-ay-tees) are taken for college entrance in US schools. Anyone familiar with the Brit system would have understood the message,
Regards,
Heather M. Baba